Method of providing mobile IPTV service and system using the same

Abstract

The method of providing a mobile IPTV service, performed in a terminal that receives streams of all channels belonging to a channel group of a currently viewed channel, includes, when a channel is selected, determining whether the selected channel and the currently viewed channel belong to the same channel group, and when the selected channel and the currently viewed channel are determined to belong to the same channel group, decoding, by the terminal, an IPTV channel stream of the selected channel within a currently received channel. Therefore, since the channel group is generated based on channel selection preference, and a multicast stream including a channel stream of the channel group is broadcast, it is possible to decrease average processing complexity and to guarantee rapid channel change when a user changes the channel to another channel in the same channel group.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of providing a mobile IPTV service that is performed in a mobile IPTV service providing server, the method comprising:
 when a channel is requested from a terminal, determining a channel group to which the requested channel belongs; 
 generating a multicast stream including a channel stream of the requested channel and channel streams of other channels belonging to the determined channel group; and 
 encoding the multicast stream and transmitting the stream to the terminal, 
 wherein the terminal changes the requested channel to another channel by determining whether the requested channel and a currently viewed channel belong to the same channel group. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the channel group is generated by classifying IPTV channels into at least one group based on predetermined criteria. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the encoding is performed such that the multicast stream is divided into a plurality of source blocks, a fountain code is applied to a source symbol in the source blocks, and the encoding is performed in units of the source blocks. 
     
     
       4. A method of providing a mobile IPTV service, performed in a terminal that receives streams of all channels belonging to a channel group of a currently viewed channel, the method comprising:
 when a channel is selected, determining whether the selected channel and the currently viewed channel belong to the same channel group; and 
 when the selected channel and the currently viewed channel are determined to belong to the same channel group, decoding, by the terminal, an IPTV channel stream of the selected channel within a currently received channel, 
 wherein the terminal changes the selected channel to another channel by determining whether the selected channel and the currently viewed channel belong to the same channel group. 
 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 4 , further comprising, when the selected channel and the currently viewed channel are determined to not belong to the same channel group, requesting a service for the selected channel from a mobile IPTV service providing server. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 4 , further comprising receiving a multicast stream that includes the IPTV channel stream of the selected channel and IPTV channel streams of other channels belonging to the same channel group as the selected channel, from a mobile IPTV service providing server. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 4 , wherein the IPTV channel stream is divided into a plurality of source blocks, a fountain code is applied to a source symbol in the divided source blocks, and encoding of the source symbol is performed in units of the source blocks. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 4 , wherein the IPTV channel stream is decoded after a required number of encoded source symbols to perform decoding is received from a base station. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , wherein the required number for decoding decreases in proportion to the number of IPTV channel streams belonging to the channel group.